Molecular characterization and expression analysis of the porcine caveolin-3 gene

Caveolin-3 is the muscle-specific form of the caveolin protein family and plays an important role in modulating both the morphological appearance and function of caveolae. In this study, we cloned and characterized caveolin-3 from porcine muscle. The promoter of porcine caveolin-3 contained three consensus E box elements and one RORalpha2 monomeric binding motif. The deduced amino acid sequence of porcine caveolin-3 contains a WW domain. This gene was mapped to SSC13 q23-q24 by the SCHP and the IMpRH panel. RT-PCR analyses showed that caveolin-3 was expressed specifically in skeletal muscle and heart. And we provide the first evidence that caveolin-3 has a certain regulated expression pattern during the prenatal period of the porcine skeletal muscle development. This result suggests that the caveolin-3 gene might be a candidate gene of meat production trait and provides some information for establishing of an animal model using pig to study human caveolinopathies.